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The Spectacle Blog
On Sunday talk shows, several of the talking heads nattered on about how Mitt Romney is a little short in “likability,” and how important being liked by voters is to his prospects in November. I wonder if these scholars know that the most one-sided presidential win in American history was in 1972, when Richard Milhous “Tricky Dick” Nixon beat George McGovern 62-38. I guess Nixon, an odd and prickly fellow at the best of times, didn’t get the memo about likability.
View all comments (10) | Leave a comment
More Blog Posts by Larry Thornberry
http://spectator.org/blog/2012/09/30/the-cuddly-tricky-dick
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Albert Constantine Jr.| 9.30.12 @ 6:52PM
Mr. Thornberry makes an interesting point, though it is quite important to remember what took place 20 months after that election victory, and how much the post-election campaign against Nixon was driven by those who hated him.
bluecollarbytes| 9.30.12 @ 6:58PM
How is Mitt Romney unlikable? He's a fine man and he'll be working for us, not posing for America's Most Fav Politico-'hip' with the kiddies and quick with the throwaway line, a popstar politician pushing bubblegum politics.
I hope Romney bores the heck out of PopMedia.
Grzmlyk| 10.1.12 @ 9:38AM
I agree that Mitt would bring some much needed adult sensibility to the Oval Office. Spoiled, petulant, entitled teenagers are tiresome in the best of times.
And I think Romney's a genuinely decent human being. Most people who hate him (those unbigoted and deep-thinking liberals) hate him because he's wealthy. And a nominal Republican.
Unfortunately, I think Romney will fold like a cheap suitcase before the Beltway establishment. That will make him unlikeable to me. He has no idea of the hatred that the mainstream media - followed by the hordes of government employees, union workers, seniors and, well, the 47% he was about 85% correct about - will visit upon him if he attempts to really fix the economy (look what's happening in Europe - riots, chaos, turmoil and then multiply by a factor of ten), which would make him extremely likeable to me.
But he won't want to impose draconian cuts (nor will he have the political capital to do so), so he'll attempt to kick the can down the road, which also won't work. Whomever it is, it will be our next president who will be caught standing when the game of fiscal musical chairs stops.
If it was Obama's goal to preside over America's decline, it will be Romney's fate, if he's elected, to preside over our fall.
As for Nixon, he remains one of the most fascinating personalities of the modern era - a tragic figure of near-Shakespearean proportions.
mike 3/505| 9.30.12 @ 7:03PM
I'm not electing a "best beer drinking buddy." I am electing the leader of the free world. I am electing somebody who knows how to get stuff done.
Maxwell| 10.1.12 @ 9:01AM
Thank you!
geronl| 9.30.12 @ 8:36PM
The media has been trying to acclimate the public to the "new normal", which is poverty and welfare. They want us to think of this lifestyle as comfortable and that we will feel safe with government to take care of us.
ugh
satire blog---> http://asspos.blogspot.com
PCC| 10.1.12 @ 8:03AM
Apropos to nothing on this particular "thread", Gov. Romney would do well in the debates to hang Afghanistan around Mr. Obama's neck and declare that not another single American should be maimed or killed in the AfPak toilet and that his first decision as president would be the immediate and complete withdrawal of all American troops from Afghanistan, tomorrow, if not sooner.
Election won.
Grzmlyk| 10.1.12 @ 9:52AM
And then what? What happens when the dog chasing the car finally catches it?
I still think Romney will win. And we'll still be screwed. There's just too much dependence, too much debt, too weak a fiat currency and too little manufacturing muscle - among other things - to pull us out of this nose dive.
And when we crash, which will have been due to one thing and one thing only - socialism - liberals will still blame conservatives.
What we are witnessing is the suicide of the West.
Occam's Tool| 10.1.12 @ 3:52PM
One month and 5 days. Goodness, I want to see Obama lose, big!
JD| 10.1.12 @ 4:38PM
Where was the Democrats' concern about "likeability" when it was Bush vs Gore?